The present invention generally relates to energy conservation in appliances, and more particularly to reducing power draw of a device, such as an appliance, when in a standby or power-saving state.
The standby power state, also referred to as sleep or idle state, generally refers to a low power consumption condition for electrical and electronic devices such as appliance and computers. In a typical standby power state, certain components and/or functions of the device are put to “sleep” or idled, so as to reduce power consumption. These reduced power conditions can have a significant effect on electrical consumption and cost compared to leaving a device fully on and idle, or not actively used.
However, even in the typical standby state, an appliance still consumes a certain amount of electricity or power. This power loss can be significant, when considered in terms of the number of appliances in use. In some cases, when an appliance is not being used for its primary purpose, there is no need for the appliance to consume any power at all. It would be advantageous to be able to determine when an appliance is in a condition in which it does not need to consume power and effectively further reduce or eliminate the power draw of the appliance in that state.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system that addresses at least some of the problems identified above.